Two Eleven (Deluxe Version)

the take

The most recent Brandy album I've ever listened to was "Afrodisiac", and that's really only because fourth-grade me was unintentionally into the album's rollout back in the day. That said, I never gave her following albums a chance, mostly because I never really had the interest of listening. That changed with me listening to "Two Eleven", Brandy's 2012 album. It's not a bad album, but I can't love it, as much as I tried to. While Brandy's vocals remain beautifully stronger than ever as she becomes older, the end results suffer from trying too hard to fit in with the then-current R&B soundscape. Sometimes it works ("Slower", "Do You Know What You Have"); other times, it slightly misses ("So Sick", "Put It Down"); and the rest still being decently enjoyable while Brandy struggles to find a consistent identity on here, great vocals and all. Brandy's "Two Eleven" was one I was kind of scared to check out, but in the end, I'm kind of glad I did. It's definitely not Brandy's best album, but it's a decent project with a couple fire-adjacent songs. Technically saying, because I was wrong, I apologize for judging the album on my crazy assumption.